Jayson Kramer made five early runs stand up and Hawai'i held off Sacramento State, 5-4, last night in the Western Athletic Conference baseball series opener at Les Murakami Stadium.

The Producers — team RBI leaders Kevin Macdonald and Kolten Wong — each homered to account for all the scoring for the Rainbows (22-12 overall, 5-3 WAC) before a crowd of 2,625.

Macdonald's two-run homer in the first was his fifth of the season, while Wong's three-run shot in the third was his team-leading eighth.

"I wouldn't say we played our best game today," Macdonald said. "Kramer pitched well. Our bats kind of cooled down a bit, but I'm happy we got the first win today. The first one's a big one."

Kramer (3-3) gave up two runs, seven hits and two walks while striking out seven in eight innings, using 91 pitches. Sam Spangler pitched the ninth for his third save, but not before giving up a two-run homer to Brent Hottman that pulled the Hornets (20-15, 1-4) to within one with one out.

"He was good," UH coach Mike Trapasso said of Kramer. "He struggled against the lefties and their lefties are pretty darn good when you talk about (Hunter) Martinez and (Tim) Wheeler in particular. (Kramer) gave us what we needed. He gave us eight innings. I'm happy with his performance. I'm disappointed that we score five in the first three and then we go into cruise control mode."

Kramer put the lead-off batter on in five of his eight innings, two of those times costing him runs. In the eighth, he hit Hottman on an 0-2 count to start the inning and gave up successive singles to Martinez and Derrick Chung to load the bases with no out, drawing a visit by Trapasso.

"He said to 'Stick with me,' " Kramer said. "So I didn't shake off (the pitches called from the dugout) for the rest of the inning and Coach got me out of it."

Kramer got the dangerous Wheeler to hit a grounder to first baseman Macdonald, who threw home for the force. Kramer then struck out Blake Crosby, but Jeff Roth singled to score one and reload the bases. Kramer got Josh Powers to ground out to short for the third out.

"For the first time in a really long time, I had my two-seamer, my changeup and my curveball," Kramer said.

The Rainbows jumped on Chris Baek (3-4) for five runs in two-plus innings. He gave up six hits and three walks.

With two outs in the bottom of the first, Vinnie Catricala singled and Macdonald ripped a hanging curve over the left-center field fence to put UH ahead, 2-0, increasing his RBI total to 33.

The Hornets got a run in the top of the third to cut their deficit in half.

But the Rainbows struck again in the bottom of the third. Catricala led off with a single and Macdonald walked. Wong drilled a first-pitch fastball on a line over the right-field fence to make it 5-1, upping his RBI total to 31.

"I'm put in the situation only because the guys (in front) are getting on base," Wong said.

The Hornets pulled to 5-2 in the harrowing eight for Kramer. Then they made it interesting in the top of the ninth against Spangler.

Pinch hitter Joe Espana led off with a single before Justin Lamb struck out. But Hottman ripped a two-run home run down the left-field line to make it 5-4, drawing a visit from Trapasso.

"I told him to relax," Trapasso said. "He was over-throwing. I told him to trust the run (on the pitches) and you just have to force contact."

Spangler struck out Martinez before Chung lined out to center fielder Wong after an 11-pitch at-bat for the third out.

"We have to do a better job of getting into someone's pen early," Trapasso said. "We have to get some add-on runs."

The series resumes today with a doubleheader starting at 3:05 p.m. The opener is scheduled for nine innings with the nightcap slated for seven.